On the Occupy Wall St Protests

http://www.smh.com.au/victoria/protesters-arrested-as-chaos-descends-on-cbd-20111021-1mb07.html


I swung by these the other day in the city and took some pictures are the protesters were setting up camp.
What i couldn't discern, in my hour or so of being there, was what the people there wanted.
I know this has been questioned by many people and discussed at length, I know what they are on about -vaguely anyway- but it struck me as odd that after spending a fair amount of time watching them, no clear message was delivered.


What they really need to do is to:
A) Organise some clear goals
B) Get rid of all the other nut-jobs and political activists trying to hijack this cause to further their own.


In regards to point B) while I was there I saw fundamentalist Christians spreading their gospel, I saw socialists, pro-refugee/anti-detention-protesters, pro-gay-marriage protesters and everything else I think I've ever seen 'protesting' in Melbourne all in the one spot. Clearly trying to swell the numbers by having multiple causes.


If I remember, I'll upload some pictures pre-police-takedown when I return to Melbourne.

Melbourne Surveillance Camera Project

Okay, since recently there has been an increase in the number of cameras around the city, I've decided that, with any spare time I have, I'm going to try and map out the camera's in the city of Melbourne and publish them on-line  just like the NYC Surveillance Camera project (see: http://www.mediaeater.com/cameras/ )

It would be nice to see if its at all possible to move from one side of the city to the other, without being filmed.
Unfortunately, Melbourne is a city, and while it isn't huge, it's not tiny either. So. I'll probably need help to do this.

New Parking Technology

Damn.

Now the parking goons have some more advanced tech up their sleeves, fine-giving-efficiency is up 100%.
General niceness is now down 99%. 1% margin of error.

I was actually under the assumption that ALL parking spaces in the city were already decked out with these. So the 'revelation' that they are only now being rolled out is a bit surprising (you thought the parking goons were efficient before? Just wait!).
http://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/ParkingTransportandRoads/Parking/Pages/InGroundSensors.aspx

The Illusion Of Choice.

So i'll explain the scenario from the begining.

Its a standard afternoon. I get pulled up by the cops. JUST as i'm driving into my street. I've not done anything wrong. But its a random licence check. In the nearly 3 years i've been driving this is the first time its happened. They run my plates and licence details and tell me to have a nice day.

Police always give me the shivers, even if i'm not doing anything wrong. 

I shrug it off and get on with the day.

The next day. Its just gotten dark and me and a few mates are off to the local park. Just as we pull in to the car park the cops pull in behind us. Again. 

They say 'random licence check. I hand them my licence. As one of them goes away to check the details the other guy says...